Julia Day and Bonnie McConnell served as co-chairs for this year’s Canada-US graduate student symposium. Both Julia and Bonnie are graduate students in ethnomusicology at the University of Washington and Canadian Studies 2010-2011 Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellows in French.

This year’s symposium included a diverse range of presentations focusing on the themes of history, culture, identity, indigenous studies, community and performance. The symposium was a great success, providing an opportunity for interaction and exchange of ideas among Canadian studies graduate students and scholars associated with many disciplines. In addition to nine University of Washington student presenters, the event attracted presenters from the University of Victoria and Emily Carr University. Michael Asch, Professor Emeritus, University of Alberta; Adjunct Professor, University of Victoria, delivered the keynote address, titled “Born for You and Me: Treaties with First Nations and the Settlement of Canada.” Marcia Ostashewski, 2010-2011 Canada-US Fulbright Visiting Chair facilitated the program.

Symposium participants learn about Frances Densmore’s Music of the Indians of British Columbia from Libby Concord (University of Victoria).

The morning panel, “Indigenous Identities, Histories, and Performance,” was chaired by Dr. Daniel Hart, American Indian Studies and Chair/Director of Canadian Studies, University of Washington. The panel featured four papers by music education and ethnomusicology students from the University of Washington and the University of Victoria. Among these were Libby Concord’s discussion of Frances Densmore’s Music of the Indians of British Columbia, and Brooke Wilken’s study of creation and recreation of cultural traditions and values in Central Alberta’s North American Indian Ecumenical Conferences and the annual Tsartlip Indian Reserve Yellow Wolf Intertribal Powwow in British Columbia.

The mini presentation panel, chaired by Dr. Michael Asch, Professor Emeritus, University of Alberta; Adjunct Professor, University of Victoria, included three University of Washington graduate students who rose to the challenge of presenting their work in seven minutes. Wendi Lindquist provided a historical description of indigenous and European American death practices in British Columbia, Washington and Oregon. Amanda Barney weighed the impact and social sustainability of geo-tourism in the communities of Fogo Island, Newfoundland. Bonnie McConnell drew attention to issues of immigration, innovation and multiculturalism in relation to Canada’s vibrant African music scene.

The afternoon panel, “Crossing Borders,” chaired by Dr. Patricia Shehan Campbell, Donald E. Peterson Professor of Music, University of Washington, brought together perspectives from the disciplines of history, art and music education. Christopher Herbert, University of Washington, addressed the parallel experiences of gold rushes in California and British Columbia (1848-1871) and how these reshaped pre-existing ideas of race, nationality and colonial societies. Sara French, Emily Carr University, chronicled her performance art piece, Norman Eberstein, enacted at the Douglas border crossing between Canada and the US. Christopher Roberts, University of Washington, explored the Smithsonian Folkways Children’s Music Collection with specific attention to children’s songs and games from French Canada, Inuit, African American and European American traditions.

“Canadian Content and Collaborations with the Smithsonian Folkways,” was a panel of special presentations featuring Dr. D.A. Sonneborn, Associate Director of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings; Dr. Patricia Shehan Campbell, Donald E. Peterson Professor of Music, University of Washington; and Margaret Asch, Co-Curator of Seeing the World of Sound: The Cover Art of Folkways Records, University of Alberta. Presentations focused on history, music, history, cover art, and educational initiatives of Smithsonian Folkways.

Symposium presenters receive instruction during the Seattle Fandango Project community music presentation. Left to right: Lummi musician Swil Kanim, Daniel Hart (Director of Canada Studies, University of Washington), Seattle Fandango Project member, Julia Day (University of Washington), Keynote speaker Michael Asch (University of Alberta, University of Victoria), and Patricia Campbell (University of Washington).

The keynote address by Dr. Michael Asch brought together many of the main themes of the symposium in a presentation titled “Born for You and Me: Treaties with First Nations and the Settlement of Canada.” Dr. Asch examined the Canadian processes of historicization of colonial settlement of lands already occupied by others and compared these with similar processes in the US.

The symposium concluded with two moving performance presentations. Members of the Seattle Fandango Project demonstrated the power of cross-border community music making by encouraging the participation of everyone present. Lummi musician and storyteller Swil Kanim closed the event with an inspirational performance that addressed the healing power of honor and self-expression.

This project was supported, in part, by funding from the Center’s Title VI grant, U.S. Department of Education, International and Foreign Language Education, and a Program Enhancement Grant, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, Government of Canada.

Canadian Studies co-organizes Association of American Geographers field trip to Vancouver and Whistler

Participants in front of the First Nations Cultural Centre in Whistler.

By Alison Gill, Simon Fraser University

From April 12th -16th over 7,000 geographers converged on Seattle to attend the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers. On the weekend prior to that a field trip entitled “Vancouver and Whistler: Seeking Sustainability” was, co-organized by Dr Alison Gill, a professor in the Department of Geography at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver and Nadine Fabbi, Associate Director, Canadian Studies Centre, University of Washington. With the excellent assistance of Leoule Goshu, a graduate student in the College of Education at the University of Washington, the 15 participants headed for Vancouver on the Amtrak train early on Saturday morning April 9th.

The focus of Saturday afternoon’s walking tour was False Creek, a redeveloped industrial waterfront in the heart of Vancouver. This provided a wonderful laboratory for examining the evolution of thinking around sustainable urban planning. After a very brief (2 minute!) voyage across False Creek on the small Aquabus ferry we arrived at Granville Island to get lunch in the bustling Public Market. Granville Island was developed in the mid-1980s as a redevelopment project based around mixed use including cultural, educational, commercial and some remaining industrial uses (including a cement factory). It is a vibrant people place that serves tourists and residents alike and is internationally acclaimed as an example of a very successful festival marketplace.

Due to a tight schedule, we then embarked on a ‘brisk’ walk (did I hear someone say ‘forced march’?) along the seawall that edges the 1970s residential development of South False Creek. Although preceding the era of “sustainability”, this development embodies many features that we now recognize as elements of sustainability. It represents a classic example of 1970s cutting edge urban and architectural design following emerging principles of ‘environmental design’ that gave precedence to issues of environmental and behavioral aspects of the quality of life. The influence of the work of Christopher Alexander who wrote “A Pattern Language” is clearly evident with such features as low rise buildings representing a humanness of scale, aesthetic features, parks, landscaping, and a heterogeneous social mix of residents and properties.

The view north across False Creek towards downtown and the North Shore Mountains showcased the second phase of development along the shoreline – that of the redeveloped Expo 86 lands. Bought by a Hong Kong developer, this high-density inner city neighborhood was developed in a style that became known as “Vancouverism” which features ‘point tower and podium’ development whereby narrow glass high-rises sit upon a broad base of street level development for commercial or residential development. The development is internationally recognized as a successful master-planned community for bringing families into downtown core and the architectural style has been emulated in cities around the world.

Our final stop was the new (still under development) Village at False Creek, a state- of-the-art sustainable residential development that was used as athletes’ housing during the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. Our guide was Scot Hein, a senior designer with the Urban Design Studio for the City of Vancouver, who was very engaged in this development. Our tour began with a visit to the Neighbourhood Energy Utility Centre where sewage from the neighborhood is converted into energy for heating buildings. It is one of many innovations showcased in the development that seeks to demonstrate how to be a “green city”. It is part of the City of Vancouver’s overall goal of becoming the greenest city in the world by 2020. All buildings in the development are all gold standard LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified and the community centre is platinum rated.

On Sunday morning we headed by coach along what we had billed as “the spectacular Sea-to-Sky highway” to Whistler. Unfortunately it was pouring with rain and foggy. Nevertheless, our visit to Whistler was excellent, thanks in part to the hotel supplying large umbrellas! Dr Peter Williams, a Professor with the School of Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University, joined us. Peter and I have been conducting research in Whistler for the past two decades examining many aspects of growth and change. Our recent research looks at the emergence of new models of sustainable governance. Whistler has long been an innovator in environmental management in mountain resorts destinations. The latest innovation broadens governance and management approaches in its development of a new comprehensive approach. This was the theme of our commentary as we walked around the resort village. Also joining us was Ian Ponsford, a current PhD candidate at Simon Fraser University who worked for four years for the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee as a sustainability planner. One of the legacies of the Games is the striking Squamish-Lillooet Cultural Centre where we ate “traditional” food for lunch. The First Nations are new stakeholders in the governance structure in the resort community.

Our cold afternoon in the rain ended with a wonderful ‘fireside chat’ and reception back at our hotel. We were joined by three guests who led us in a very lively discussion on sustainability: Erin Romanchuk and Naomi Devine from Whistler Centre for Sustainability and Dave Waldron, a consultant, who had worked on Whistler’s environmental management strategies and on establishing the Natural Step process that forms the basis of the new sustainable governance approach.

The following morning, despite early morning snow showers in Whistler, the skies cleared and the sun came out for our return journey to Vancouver allowing for a few photo stops en route. While Vancouver looked its most spectacular with sun, blue skies and snow covered North Shore Mountains, our Monday visit was to see the less glamorous face of Vancouver. Abigail Bond, Assistant Director of Housing Policy for the City of Vancouver met us and took us to the fringes of the Downtown Eastside, a neighborhood of poor and homeless people and drug addicts. This area has presented persistent social and housing problems for the City. However, as Abigail demonstrated in her presentation to us in the newly developed multiuse Woodward’s building (that includes market, non-market and social housing components), progress is being made to address the problems.

Our final trek, a quick jaunt to get a sense of historic Gastown, the cruise ship terminal, the new conference centre, the classic art deco Marine Building and Chinatown, brought us back to the railway station for the bus ride back to Seattle. It was a hectic three days but we all learned a lot – including the organizers!

Alison Gill is a Professor in the Department of Geography at Simon Fraser University. Her primary research interests lie in the relationship of tourism to community planning and development. Alison has conducted research in Whistler and other mountain resort communities for the past six years. She is especially interested in considering what effect the development of tourism has on the social, political and economic processes and structures of communities.

This project was supported, in part, by funding from the Center’s Title VI grant, U.S. Department of Education, International and Foreign Language Education.

Métis, mixed-ness and music: Aboriginal-Ukrainian encounters and cultural production on the Canadian prairies
Wednesday April 20, 2011

In late April, Dr. Marcia Ostashewski, UW’s 2010-11 Canada-US Fulbright Visiting Research Chair, gave her lecture Métis-Ukrainian encounters in Canada as part of the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies Global Focus Lecture Series.

Aboriginal/non-Aboriginal intermarriages, often described as “mixed-race,” have been the focus of historians and anthropologists, and represent an important legacy of the colonial pasts and present of both the United States and Canada which require further investigation. As an ethnomusicologist, Ostashewski is investigating a legacy of Aboriginal/Eastern European settler encounters and relations in music, dance and related expressive culture on the Canadian prairies. In this presentation, she focuses on Alberta-based musician Arnie Strynadka, “The Uke-Cree Fiddler” – looking at the ways in which his musical life and performance represent a particular encounter and fusion of ethnicities, examining experiences of hybridity and intercultural relations in the context of this unique, western Canadian musical life.

The lecture was attended by faculty and students from geography, ethnomusicology, sociology and history. It was followed by a lively discussion between Ostashewski and participants.

This project was supported, in part, by funding from the Center’s Title VI grant, U.S. Department of Education, International and Foreign Language Education.

In 2006 the UW (Vice Provost for International Education) and the Foundation for Educational Exchange between Canada and the United States agreed to establish a Fulbright Visiting Research Chair at the UW. The Fulbright Chair is sponsored by Global Affairs, Social Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences, the Graduate Fund for Excellence and Innovation, and the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies.

In March Greg Shelton, Managing Director of Global Trade, Transportation and Logistics Studies (GTTL) was awarded a $5,000 Government of Canada grant for a cross-border field course to Canada.

Students in the program will conduct research in British Columbia with Canadian and U.S. universities, provincial, state and local governments on the expansion of passenger rail service along the Amtrak Cascades corridor between Eugene, Oregon and Vancouver, B.C. Topics to be addressed include potential “two-nation vacation” rail marketing partnerships between British Columbia, Washington and Oregon tourism associations; use of passenger rail for venue access and cross-promotion of competition between professional soccer teams of Portland, Seattle and Vancouver, B.C.; expedited border inspection protocols through a collaborative effort with Canadian Border Services Agency and US Customs and Border Protection, International Mobility and Trade Corridor, Pacific Northwest Economic Region and respective U.S. and Canadian consulates; bi-national rail governance and joint finance through public-private partnerships and enhanced transit connections.

An additional goal of this project is to facilitate expansion Canadian and U.S. partnerships for economic development, tourism and environmental enhancements on the rail corridor and to promote the expansion of a current U.W./Portland State University high-speed rail class to include a future partnership with a university in British Columbia.

Student research and Canadian interviews will be incorporated into ongoing studies for state and provincial departments that will be presented to Washington and Oregon Governors and the Premier of British Columbia to further their Pacific Coast Collaborative with California to promote high speed rail among several bi-national transportation policies.

Britta Tunestam, a Jackson School of International Studies-Scandinavian Studies major, has been selected to participate in this project. Britta was a participant in last summer’s “Green Recovery” international study tour to B.C. sponsored by the Canadian Studies Center and Center for European Studies. Britta and is interested in comparative development and sustainability policies. She is currently a rail policy intern with the Cascadia Project.

Greg Shelton, Managing Director of GTTL and Canadian Studies affiliated faculty, will supervise the project in conjunction with the Cascadia Project.

11th Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition Conference

In late March 2011, the Department of Linguistics and Canadian Studies co-sponsored a major conference on linguistics - the 11th Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition.

The purpose of this international meeting was to bring together researchers from a variety of institutions and sub-areas within linguistics, second language acquisition, and psycholinguistics to present state-of-the-art work that addresses contemporary insights in generative approaches to second language acquisition. Research in bilingualism and language acquisition are critical for an understanding of linguistic, cultural and political aspects of Canadas multilingual populations. To address these issues, two Canadian scholars provided keynote speeches, Dr. Susanne Carroll from the University of Calgary and Dr. Heather Goad, McGill University. The conference, held every two years in the U.S. and Canada, hosted participants from around the world and covered a range of bilingual populations. The presentations included discussions of heritage (speakers of Spanish and Hindi) learners, adult and child acquisition of French, and processing of speech in real-time (e.g. reaction time, brain waves). The empirical studies presented at the conference are directly relevant for language instruction and linguistic integration of bilingual populations, as the many Canadian examples demonstrated.

Over 70 faculty and graduate students attended the conference.

Julia Herschensohn, Professor and Chair, Department of Linguistics and affiliated faculty of Canadian Studies, chaired the conference.

The conference was supported, in part, by funding from the Center’s Title VI grant, U.S. Department of Education, International and Foreign Language Education.

Research on Living with HIV in Canada

Francisco Ibanez-Carrasco, Ontario HIV Treatment Network, David Brennan, University of Toronto and Charles Emlet, University of Washington Tacoma

Charles Emlet, Professor of Social Work at the University of Washington Tacoma and Canadian colleagues from the University of Toronto, Ryerson University and the Ontario HIV Treatment Network presented initial results from their study on older adults living with HIV in Ontario at the 20th Annual Canadian Conference on HIV/AIDS Research, held in Toronto, Ontario, in April.

The poster session entitled Protective and risk factors associated with HIV stigma in a population of older adults living with HIV, examined factors associated with increased stigma among 377 adults, 50 years of age and older, that are enrolled in the Ontario HIV Treatment Network Cohort Study. This research is funded by a grant from the Government of Canada (Emlet, PI) as well as a grant to Dr. David Brennan, Assistant Professor, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social work at the University of Toronto from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Additional presentations and publications from the results of this research are expected in the coming months.

Reflections from the Evaluator of the SIS 495A Task Force on Arctic Governance

Julia Gourley, (second from right, front), U.S. Senior Arctic Official, Office of Ocean and Polar Affairs, U.S. Department of State, poses with the Task Force class at the end of the Expert Evaluation.

By Julie Gourley, U.S. Senior Arctic Official, Office of Ocean and Polar Affairs, U.S. Department of State and Expert Evaluator, Task Force

On March 10, 2011, I served as the evaluator for the Task Force 2011 project entitled, “Melting Boundaries: Rethinking Arctic Governance.” The undergraduate participants in this project did an outstanding job with their research and policy recommendations. They clearly put a lot of work into their individual topics, and each student or group of students gave an excellent presentation.

The students exhibited creativity in developing their recommendations to governments. Some of the recommendations were very similar to policies the U.S. State Department has already pursued or is considering pursuing. Others were insightful and creative even if not practical (which they would not know without the full picture across government). It was clear from their work that they were intellectually interested in the subject and learned a lot from their research and their excursion to Canada where they met with a number of key players in Arctic policy both in Canada and the U.S.

The experience was also valuable for me. It is always good for government policymakers to be exposed to fresh thinking on key issues we handle on a daily basis. It is good to learn that college students are now studying the Arctic and thinking about policy for the region. An Arctic-focused program of study would hopefully encourage students to consider careers in the federal government, particularly in foreign policy. The government needs smart, energetic, creative thinkers to make the best policy for the United States, and foreign policy is not something most college undergraduate students think about for their future careers. This program at the Jackson School is very unique in that it targets undergraduate students – something very few American colleges and universities are doing to my knowledge.

The Task Force on Arctic Governance is a joint program between the Canadian and Global Studies Centers in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington and part of the Canadian Studies Center and Makivik Corporation, Nunavik, Canada, Educational Initiative. The 2011 Ottawa Research Trip was sponsored by the Canadian and Global Studies Title VI grants, International Education Programs Service, U.S. Department of Education; Government of Canada; Hellmann Fund for Innovation and Excellence; Maxwell M. and Julia Fisher Endowment; International Studies Program Discretionary Fund; Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies; Wilburforce Foundation, Seattle; and Makivik Corporation.

Québec Questions: Québec Studies for the Twenty-First Century

In late April the Québec Delegation in Los Angeles sponsored a luncheon at University of Washington to introduce Christopher Kirkey and Jarrett Rudy, co-editors with Stéphan Gervais of Québec Questions (2011). Québec Questions is a contributed, multidisciplinary text that examines Québec history from social, cultural and political perspectives. Experts from a variety of fields create a contributed text on this history of Québec that is the first of its kind in the English language.

“Is Québec a nation? How do language, history and culture combine to form the unique Québec identity? These are only a few of the many challenging issues addressed by 36 contributors to Québec Questions: Québec Studies for the Twenty-First Century … it is designed to bring together thoughtful insights from various disciplines and encourage and interdisciplinary approach to understanding Québec. Each of its six thematic sections – Memories, Identities, Language, Citizenship, Québec Models, and Québec International – begins with an introductory essay that provides a framework and context for the essays that follow” (from the book jacket).

Jarrett Rudy is an assistant professor as well as director of the Québec Studies program at McGill University. Stéphan Gervais is an assistant professor at McGill University and coordinator of the Québec Studies program. Christopher Kirkey is professor in and director of the Center for the Study of Canada at SUNY Plattsburgh.

The luncheon was sponsored by the Québec Delegation in Los Angeles and hosted by Yanick Godbout, Head of Post in LA. The luncheon was attended by faculty and students at the University of Washington with an interest in research on Québec including Center Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellows, and by members of the American Association of Teachers of French.

National Resource Center on Canada exhibits at National Council for History Education Conference

Julia Warren (left) with Tina Storer.

Tina Storer, Education and Curriculum Specialist at Western Washington University’s Center for Canadian-American Studies, and Cynthia Carlisle, K-12 STUDY CANADA Teacher Associate from South Carolina, exhibited materials on behalf of both National Resource Centers on Canada to educators attending the National Council for History Education conference in Charleston, South Carolina on March 31-April 2, 2011.

Over 100 educators received a set of resources from each National Resource Center to assist them in teaching about Canada and were informed about the professional development workshops available in the summer. Forty educators from 19 states and 1 province (AZ, CA, FL, GA, IA, IL, KY, LA, MA, MI, MS, NC, NV, OH, OK, PA, SC, UT, VT and AB) showed significant interest in learning even more and signed up to join the Canada Listserv to receive regular e-resource news written by Tina Storer. Many of these teachers indicated an interest in registering for the summer institutes as well. Each National Resource Center also contributed two books as giveaways for prize drawings at the end of the conference to establish further interest in making connections to Canada in US history classrooms.

Exhibiting National Resource Center resources and networking with the US history teachers who attended the National Council for History Education conference encouraged to educators to include stronger connections to Canada in their classrooms. The take-away materials and sign-ups for the “Canada Listserv” will lead to increased visits to National Resource Center websites (rich with content, curriculum and resources) as well as registrations to both National Resource Center summer institutes.